What a way to spend a day.

So Robby decided that since today was my birthday, it would be a good day to get my car fixed. It needed an alternator. It was making a horrible high-pitched squeaking noise.

We purchased an alternator and found a guy who would put it in for us. He commented that part of the noise might well be the belt (a universal belt), and he would change that, too, for only the cost of the belt and no additional labor. Sounded great!

2-3 hours later, he called, saying the car was ready. I had my MIL drop me by, where I paid him and turned on the car. No squeak! Then I put it into gear and pressed down on the accelerator. Oh, dear. Not only was it squeaking, but MUCH worse than before!

He listened, and said that it looked like it needed a tension adjustment pulley (that wasn’t the name of it.. the name slips my mind at the moment). Ok. I drove to AutoZone, picked up a pulley, and went back to the guy, and his guy replaced it.

Upon restarting the vehicle, the squeak resumed. He said we should get some belt grease stuff (I don’t remember the name of IT, either) and I headed back to AutoZone. About halfway there, the squeak stopped. However, from the time I left the guy’s place, it was making an odd noise. I hoped that since the squeak stopped, we were ok. I pulled into AutoZone and began gathering my stuff before turning off the car.

Suddenly, a thunk. Turning off the car, I popped the hood and got out. I opened the hood and looked. Sure enough, the belt was no longer on. In fact, one side of it was coming apart (it was a brand new belt so SOMETHING had cut it). I called the guy and he sent a couple guys over. They switched out the shredded belt for a new one and put it back on. They followed me back to the guy’s place where he once again took a look.

He said we would chalk it up to human error and hope it was ok now. It looked ok and sounded fine. I drove home.

We decided we were all going out to eat, in my CLEAN, newly-fixed car. We hopped in and headed down the street. Just about to the main road… yeah, you guessed it. Thunk!-Flubber-flibber-flup. So much for the new belt.

So we got it home quick (we were only about half a mile away) and went to eat in Robby’s car. And mine sits in the yard… Sigh.